Mark Twain’s love of baseball, documented in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” was the subject of a New York Times profile. He once lost an umbrella at a professional game and placed the following ad in his local paper:

FIVE DOLLARS REWARD

At the great base ball match on Tuesday, while I was engaged in hurrahing, a small boy walked off with an English-made brown silk UMBRELLA belonging to me, and forgot to bring it back. I will pay $5 for the return of that umbrella in good condition to my home on Farmington avenue. I do not want the boy (in an active state) but will pay two hundred dollars for his remains. SAMUEL L. CLEMENS